title: Characteristics and screening history of women diagnosed with cervical cancer aged 20-29 years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There was concern that failure to screen women aged 20-24 years would increase the number of cancers or advanced cancers in women aged 20-29 years. We describe the characteristics of women diagnosed with cervical cancer in England aged 20-29 years and examine the association between the period of diagnosis, screening history and FIGO stage.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used data on 1800 women diagnosed with cervical cancer between April 2007 and March 2012 at age 20-29 from the National Audit of Invasive Cervical Cancers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of cancers (995, or 62% of those with known stage) were stage 1A. Cancer at age 20-24 years was rare (12% of those aged 20-29 years), when compared with age 25 (24%) and age 26-29 years (63%); however, cancers in women aged 20-24 years tended to be more advanced and were more often of a rare histological type. For 59% of women under age 30, the cervical cancer was screen detected, most of them (61%) as a result of their first screening test. A three-fold increase in the number of cancers diagnosed at age 25 years was seen since the start of the study period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cervical cancer at age 20-24 years is rare. Most cancers in women under age 30 years are screen detected as microinvasive cancer.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cancer Prevention, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square, London, EC1M 6BQ, UK. a.castanon@qmul.ac.uk
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Castanon
authors.forename: V M W
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Landy
authors.forename: A W W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sasieni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008403:Mass Screening; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D055815:Young Adult